Today in Soap Opera History (February 4)

1966: The character of Mike Bauer (played by Gary Pillar), born and raised on THE GUIDING LIGHT, debuted on ANOTHER WORLD in a crossover that would last a year. Elissa Leeds would join the show as Hope Bauer on March 25.

1975: On ANOTHER WORLD, Rachel (Victoria Wyndham) fretted to Ada (Constance Ford) she didn't have enough friends to be bridesmaids. Ada worried where Jamie (Robert Doran) would be living while they waited for the house to be built, so Gil (Dolph Sweet) suggested buying and renovating an old mansion.

1980: THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS expanded to an hour. 30 minute versions of Y&R and SEARCH FOR TOMORROW had aired at 12 p.m and 12:30 p.m. ET, respectively (and had been since Y&R's premiere in 1973). The Noon half our was returned to the affiliates and the one hour Y&R moved to 1 p.m. after SFT. AS THE WORLD TURNS moved to 2 p.m. followed by GUIDING LIGHT at 3 p.m. ONE DAY AT A TIME repeats shifted into the 4 p.m. timeslot occupied until the previous Friday by LOVE OF LIFE.

1980: On GUIDING LIGHT, Roger (Michael Zaslow) kidnapped Rita (Lenore Kasdorf)from the Hall of Mirrors with Donna Summmer's "Enough is Enough" playing in the background.

1980: On THE EDGE OF NIGHT, Derek (Dennis Parker) worked to get a warrant to arrest Draper for Margo's murder.

2005: On THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, Jack (Peter Bergman) refused to leave Jabot.

Celebrating a birthday today are:Jerry Adler (ex-Len, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - 84Gil Rogers - (ex-Hawk, GUIDING LIGHT; ex-Ray, ALL MY CHILDREN) - 79Marie Masters (ex-Susan, AS THE WORLD TURNS; ex-Helen, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Hester, LOVE OF LIVE) - 72Barbara Garrick (ex-Allison, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Charlotte, GUIDING LIGHT) - 48Trent Dawson (ex-Henry, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 42

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to submit a piece of soap opera history for this daily column, please email it to editor@welovesoaps.com.

4 comments:

The information on the time slot change when the Young and the Restless is in error. On the East Coast, the Young and the Restless aired at 12:30; As the World Turns at 1:30, and SFT at 2:30. When SFT was cancelled in 82, Capitol aired in the 2:30 slot. When Capitol was cancelled to make room for the Bold and the Beautiful, the Bells insisted it be aired at 1:30 so it would benefit from the lead-in of their other show, the Young and the Restless. That's when As the World Turns moved to 2 pm. (It had always aired at 1:30 since its premiere in the 50s.)

The information on the time slot change when the Young and the Restless is in error. On the East Coast, the Young and the Restless aired at 12:30; As the World Turns at 1:30, and SFT at 2:30. When SFT was cancelled in 82, Capitol aired in the 2:30 slot. When Capitol was cancelled to make room for the Bold and the Beautiful, the Bells insisted it be aired at 1:30 so it would benefit from the lead-in of their other show, the Young and the Restless. That's when As the World Turns moved to 2 pm. (It had always aired at 1:30 since its premiere in the 50s.)

Do remember that each station could choose to run shows in different time slots if they so chose. Where I grew up on the East Coast near Philly, Love of Life aired at 11am instead of 4pm and the local ABC affiliate never showed Edge of Night at 4pm, you had to find the NY ABC affiliate for that. Here in Chicago for the last few years of Guiding Light, they aired it at 9am.